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Noah Wyle

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Noah Strausser Speer Wyle

Biography

A fixture on the NBC Thursday night lineup for over a decade, Noah Wyle was a relatively unknown actor when he was cast as sweetly earnest young doctor John Carter on NBC's top-rated medical drama "ER" (NBC, 1994- 2009). Despite a few supporting feature film roles in "A Few Good Men" (1992) and Oliver Stone's "W." (2008), the stage-trained actor's boyish looks and bookish persona failed to translate as effectively to the big screen. However …

ER alum Noah Wyle and his wife, Sara Wells, have welcomed a baby girl together, his rep confirms to … More »

About

A fixture on the NBC Thursday night lineup for over a decade, Noah Wyle was a relatively unknown actor when he was cast as sweetly earnest young doctor John Carter on NBC's top-rated medical drama "ER" (NBC, 1994- 2009). Despite a few supporting feature film roles in "A Few Good Men" (1992) and Oliver Stone's "W." (2008), the stage-trained actor's boyish looks and bookish persona failed to translate as effectively to the big screen. However Wyle did enjoy significant critical success with made-for-TV movies including the examination of high tech culture "Pirates of Silicon Valley" (1999), in which he portrayed Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In "The Librarian" adventure fantasy series (TNT, 2002, 2004, 2006), Wyle starred as a world-traveled scholar entrusted with unraveling ancient mysteries, and with these roles, maintained his reputation as a go-to for likable, intellectual types with a dash of good-natured wit.

Born June 4, 1971, Hollywood native Wyle became interested in acting as a high school student at The Thacher School in rural Ojai. He further explored drama by attending a summer acting workshop at Northwestern University in Chicago, and returned to California to ambitiously direct a production of Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit." After graduating in 1989, he studied acting with Larry Moss and worked as a busboy while appearing in more stage productions. He began to get his foot in the screen acting door with a bit part in the 1990 NBC miniseries "Blind Faith," and the following year, made his feature debut as the doomed son in a dysfunctional family in "Crooked Hearts" (1991) alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh and Peter Berg. A supporting role as a marine driver who testifies at a court martial in Rob Reiner's Oscar-nominated Best Picture "A Few Good Men" (1992), and one as a leader of a group of Lindy-hopping Hitler Youth in Thomas Carter's "Swing Kids" (1993), raised his stock in Hollywood. Wyle was also part of the ensemble including Rick Schroeder, Dermot Mulroney and Lucy Deakins in the 1960s high school drama, "There Goes My Baby" (1994). In a charming lead that tapped into the actor's strength for old school derring-do, he was also cast that year as Sir Lancelot opposite Sheryl Lee's "Guinevere" (Lifetime, 1994), a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legend.

Wyle's career went into overdrive at the end of 1994 when he was cast in "ER," a young, fresh take on the medical drama genre that made an instant star of Wyle for his role as the young, passionate humanitarian intern, Carter. Wyle stayed with the show for 11 seasons, longer than anyone else in the original ensemble, and earned more than half a dozen Emmy Award nominations while taking on additional film and TV projects between shooting seasons. In 1997, he appeared in limited theaters in the indie family drama "The Myth of Fingerprints" (1997) alongside Roy Scheider and Blythe Danner, while in 1999, his wholesome bookishness made him an excellent casting choice to play Apple computer guru Steve Jobs in the cable picture, "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" (TNT, 1999), which was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie. In 2000, Wyle and fellow "ER" staffer George Clooney (along with revered stage vets Brian Dennehy and Richard Dreyfus) starred in "Fail Safe" (CBS, 2000), a televised play based on the Cold War military drama novel by Eugene Burdick. He had a small role as the science teacher of a teenager haunted by post-apocalyptic visions (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the surreal indie "Donnie Darko" (2001), and in a rare villainous role, played a dishonest police officer in the thriller "Enough" (2002), starring Jennifer Lopez.

Big screen success eluded Wyle, but he remained a television draw as the star of TNT's tongue-in-cheek "The Librarian" action movie series; first playing the brainy keeper of a secret stash of magical items in "The Librarian: Quest for the Spear" (2004). Following his departure from "ER" in 2005, Wyle headlined the low budget drama "The Californians," but found a much wider audience when he reprised his "Librarian" role and headed off to Africa in the sequel "Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006). He earned a second round of best actor nominations from the Saturn Awards for the film series before appearing in Oliver Stone's "W." (2008), a fictionalized biopic of the 43rd President of the United States that cast Wyle as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans. In another Washington-set drama, he portrayed a lawyer charged with defending a newspaper editor (Angela Bassett) who refuses to reveal the source of a story that "outs" a CIA operative in "Nothing But the Truth" (2008) inspired by the notorious Valerie Plame case. The film was well reviewed but only received limited release.

With "The Librarian: The Curse of the Jade Chalice" (TNT, 2008), Wyle's historian was off to New Orleans in search of vampires, however his profile spike the following spring came thanks to the series finale of "ER" and the much anticipated return of Wyle and other former stars to wrap up their characters' storylines. Wyle's role at the center of that media event was followed by a supporting role in the Cold War coming-of-age drama, "An American Affair" (2009).